Sony Is Branching Out Their Image Sensor Business

Sony announced today that they will be branching out several of its current businesses into their own separate companies as a "measure to reinforce its Device segment." The 3 businesses that will go through this change are the semiconductors, battery and storage media businesses. The aim of this approach is "to more rapidly adapt to their respective changing market environments and generate sustained growth."

Sony has since established a new company for their image sensor business called Sony Semiconductor Solutions and it will be responsible for manufacturing their semiconductors and image sensors. Sony Semiconductor Corporation (not to be confused with the new company Sony Semiconductor Solutions) and Sony LSI design, which originally handles the manufacture of their semiconductors will now fall under the new company's umbrella, while the storage media business and battery business will become the subsidiary of Sony Storage Media and Devices Corporation and Sony Energy Devices Corporation respectively.

While Sony has done something similar with their VAIO brand, this new restructuring follows in the footsteps of their Bravia TV line, which is also a separate business for their audio and video line of products. And by segmenting the various businesses into their own distinct companies, Sony has, in a way, streamlined their various businesses and products. According to Sony, the purpose of this major restructuring of its businesses is, "to ensure clearly attributable accountability and responsibility from the perspective of shareholders, management policies with an emphasis on sustainable profit generation, and the acceleration of decision-making processes and reinforcement of business competitiveness."

Sony's image sensors are generally regarded as the best sensors in the market and it is not only used in their own products such as their Alpha series cameras and Xperia phones, but also in a variety of other smartphones ranging from Apple, Samsung, and most recently in Google's latest Nexus devices.

"By integrating these business functions and manufacturing operations, the Company aims to ensure continued, stable profit generation. Sony also targets April 2016 for the completion of this transfer." Now with a more centralised business established for their image sensors, we can expect to see even greater innovations coming to future devices.